Author Dawn Drozd Offers Small Business Owners 3 Tips On How to Avoid Hiring Mistakes

Small business owners report rising optimism and increasing employment, according to a report from the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB). In the rush to fill vacant positions, owners can make hiring mistakes. Author Dawn Drozd gives 3 tips to avoid them.

Dawn Drozd, author of The Success Code and founder of ClearVision Business Coaching

Online PR News – 23-April-2014 – Utica/Michigan – Small business owners report rising optimism and increasing employment, according to a new report from the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB). The latest Small Business Optimism Index, a monthly barometer of the small business sector nationwide, rose two points to 93.4 from February’s 91.4 figure.

From NFIB’s news release, “Owners increased employment by an average of 0.18 workers per firm in March…the sixth positive month in a row. Forty-nine percent of the owners hired or tried to hire in the last three months and 41 percent reported few or no qualified applicants for open positions.

Business coach Dawn Drozd, author of the book, The Success Code: 9 Principles for Small Business Success in Any Economy, says that the Index numbers are no surprise. Her small business clients are having trouble finding qualified candidates, too.

She cautions that it’s a challenge owners must solve. Building an exceptional team is one of the critical factors for growth and most small business owners suffer from similar issues around hiring and staff development.

Drozd says she sees three recurring themes across small businesses:

1. Not having a hiring process.

“Small business owners seldom think of themselves as being in the human resource business,” Drozd explains. “As a result, they don’t have consistent hiring processes to follow. Each time there’s a position to be filled; it’s treated as an isolated incident. Not only does this add stress and chaos to filling a position, it opens the door for hiring mistakes.”

2. Waiting too long to hire.

The business is growing, but rather than continuously look for new members to flesh out team capabilities, the owners wait until orders are flying in, work is piling up, and stretched staffers are screaming. Now, in a rush to add capacity, the owner or manager hires the first “warm body” that crosses her path.

3. Hiring the “right for now, wrong for the future” candidate.

Bad hires happen when the business owner doesn’t have a clear long-term vision for the future, says Drozd. “When you don’t know what you want your company to look like in three years, or 10 years, you can’t know exactly who you’ll need on your team to help you achieve the vision.”

These hiring mistakes happen in businesses large and small, but it’s the small business owner who has more to lose with a bad hire. Researchers at the National Business Research Institute (NBRI) estimate that each bad hire could cost anywhere from $25,000 to $300,000 depending on the position. Figures like that can make a serious dent in small business profits.

Drozd recommends that small business owners to develop systems for hiring the right people who have the talent to do the job. “It starts with clarifying your vision for the company, defining your culture and having a systematic hiring process. Write down a list of requirements for each position and list the behavioral attributes needed for the job to be done well.”

About Dawn Drozd and ClearVision Business Coaching

Dawn Drozd is the founder and CEO of ClearVision Business Coaching and author of The Success Code: 9 Principles for Small Business Success in Any Economy. Dawn teaches small business owners the exact combination to unlock their own success code for profits, productivity and peace of mind.

A Certified Business Coach, Dawn has been named one of the Top 150 coaches in the world and Regional Breakthrough Coach of the Year, thanks to her coaching acumen and decades as an owner of multiple businesses.

In 2011, Dawn studied 50 of the region’s most successful small business owners to distill the framework that creates sustainable growth and published her findings in The Success Code.

ClearVision works with business owners to increase focus, attract more business, develop their own dream team and significantly improve profits. ClearVision clients – across retail, service, financial, medical, and manufacturing sectors – achieve an average 40% + increase in profits and revenue.